ENLIGHTENMENT

"Debate over the meaning of 'Enlightenment' began in the eighteenth century and has continued unabated until our own times. This period saw the opening of debates on the nature of man, truth, on the place of God, and the international circulation of ideas, people and gold. Did the Enlightenment mean the same for men and women, for rich and poor, for Europeans and non-Europeans? In the second edition of her book, Dorinda Outram addresses these, and other questions about the Enlightenment. She studies it as a global phenomenon, setting the major debates of the period against broader social changes such as the onset of industrialisation, the establishment of the new colonial empires, and the exploration of hitherto unmapped portions of the world's surface." "The new edition offers a fresh introduction as well as a new chapter on slavery and new material on the Enlightenment as a global phenomenon. The bibliography and short biographies have been revised and extended. This unique and accessible synthesis of scholarship will prove invaluable reading to any student of eighteenth-century history, philosophy, and the history of ideas."--Jacket.